


Shrouded in Light

by CaesiumDressing



Series: Huxloween 2017: Huxloween Rides Again [17]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Bad Ideas, Destiny, Fortune Telling, Kid Fic, M/M, Pre-Slash, Visions, and all that, that turn out good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-18 23:23:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12398382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaesiumDressing/pseuds/CaesiumDressing
Summary: Armitage Hux follows a trail of bio-luminescent fungus into the woods.





	Shrouded in Light

Armitage wandered out in the back fields of the academy in a daze. His father had just gotten finished telling him what a worthless child he was. It was not the first time nor would it be the last. Sloane had been able to stymie the physical abuse but his father had a way of getting under your skin. He didn’t yell, yelling would call attention to them. Instead he condescended to Armitage. Speaking to him as if he were too stupid to even write his own name. No matter how good Armitage got at anything his father would always be the same. It was disheartening. Neither Sloane nor the children under his command would ever be able to take away that sting.

Armitage reached the “lake” in the fields. It wasn’t a lake in the real sense; it was a drainage ditch that didn’t drain. Hux sat beside the tepid water, watching the sun fall below the horizon. He wasn’t particularly relaxed here but being away from the noise of other people gave him a moment to reorient himself. He closed his eyes and laid back in the grass.

Armitage wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep but he was awoken by the sound of splashing and then the sound of running. He bolted up grabbing for his boot knife. Instantly aware he took stock of his surroundings. There was no sign that anyone from the academy had come looking for him but as he glanced around he noticed something odd.

The planet had a specific type of aquatic fungus that glowed an eerie green color at night. Part of the reason Hux liked this specific drainage ditch was because it was absolutely over run with colonies of it. When he looked at the growing drainage ditch he noticed that there was a trail leading out of the water and into the woods just beyond the academy line. Hux’s higher logic was telling him to go back inside, but some of the little bit of wonder and interest hadn’t been beaten out of him and that part was telling him to follow the trail. Hux glanced back at the academy for a moment, trying to convince his body to turn around and go back inside, but after a moment he found himself running along the trail of glowing slime into the darkness.

The path whatever had come out of the water had taken through the forest was wild. It was almost as if it was leaving a trail for him to follow. Again, the side of Armitage that held only reason and practicality told him that this was highly unusual and maybe dangerous, but Armitage ran on.

The trail finally brought him to a cave that Armitage was familiar with. On occasion the cadets would go out on training missions in these woods. He had discovered this cave when he was scouting out the forest and instead of letting the rest of the boys know he kept it to himself. The cave was his secret, the other boys would have certainly told his father and his father would have certainly had it destroyed. Not only to spite Armitage, although that would definitely be a benefit, but because the walls of the cave were absolutely covered in ancient art. Hux remembered looking at the walls with amazement. So many scenes of battles forgotten by history, thousands of dead races were painted here. If Armitage were to be asked in the proper mood he may even use the word “beautiful” to describe it.

He stepped into the cave and let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he had been holding. It was even more magnificent at night. The fungus grew here as well, but as opposed to the green color alone it glimmered in every shade that Armitage had ever seen. The cudgels that Armitage had first percieved as made of wood were now glowing in every imaginable color. They were lightsabers. These were force users thousands of years ago. Armitage just stood in the middle of the cave, mouth agape. That was until he heard a cough.

Armitage spun on his heel brandishing his knife. In the darkness he perceived a small hunched figure.

“Identify yourself,” Hux hissed at the figure cloaked in darkness. The thing laughed.

“I am the rightful inhabitant of this cave young one,” the voice spoke, light and melodious. “I should be the one asking you to identify yourself.”

The figure shuffled forward a bit and there was a click. Armitage prepared himself to flee but after a moment a small lantern began to glow at the feet of the other in the cave. When Armitage’s eyes adjusted he took in the figure.

The other was alien, and possibly female based on the voice. She was immensely short, and even looking at her sitting Armitage could tell she would barely come up past his hip if she were to stand. More to the point however was that the creature’s eyes were milky white and without pupils.

“Yes Armitage Hux, I am blind and I am female,” she chuckled, somehow staring right at him with her sightless eyes. She gestured to a small pillow across from where she sat. “Please, sit. You are a guest.”

Armitage hesitated for a moment. Again the logical side of his brain was telling him to turn back now. This was all too strange. But still, he found his body moving against logic and he sat down.

“What would a blind creature want with a cave filled with art?” Armitage asked, trying to get comfortable. The pillow was certainly more pleasant than the rock floor, but it was still lumpy and odd. The creature laughed and smiled at him with her mouth full of gaps and rotted teeth.

“I wasn’t always blind,” she answered, waving a hand. A fire sprung up in a small pit where Hux had been standing only a few moments before. With another gesture she summoned a kettle and hook to hang over the fire.

“How are you doing that?” Hux gasped, watching the fire leap and kettle float of its own free will. He turned back to the stooping alien.

“The Force, young one. The same way I knew your name, the same way I could hear your wonder.” She smiled. “Same as I saw that you would end up here tonight.”

“I heard the Force is just trickery for people who believe in magic over science,” Hux huffed. That is what his father insisted anyway.

“Your father is a fool,” she wheezed. “But you know that already. It’s interesting that you don’t believe in the Force young one, I feel it around you.”

“Don’t the mystics say that the Force flows through all living beings?” Hux asked.

“Yes, of course. The Force engulfs the galaxy even out here in the Unknown Regions. But no child,” she said, leaning forward as if she were examining him closely with her blind eyes. “You, there is something that has wrapped itself around you like a shroud.”

Hux wiggled uncomfortably. The idea that something was attached to him that he had no control over was unsettling.  

“I can’t explain it any better than you are entwined with a destiny that will have you surrounded by the Force.” The crone rubbed her chin for a moment and then her face cracked into a smile. “Ah, I know just the thing.” She waved her hand again and a mug floated out of a small box on the ground. It floated to the now boiling kettle and filled itself with water. The mug then floated over to a cabinet where a bottle of mysterious herbs tipped itself into the water. It settled on the cabinet.

“Armitage Hux, boy in the shroud,” she said, reaching into a small bag at her side and producing a small thermos. “I will give you an opportunity that very few ever receive.” She handed the thermos to him. “You may fill the thermos with the tea that is brewing there before you leave. Drink it before you go to sleep tonight. You will see the shroud and what it ties you too.”

“You mean you are allowing me to see my future?” he asked, turning the thermos around in his hands.

“Yes.” She smiled at him. “It is your choice. You may go without if you wish, but this is a rare opportunity. The tea is ready, Armitage.”She spoke, gesturing at the cup.

When Hux looked over he heard the lantern shut off and a sound like the wind whipping through the cave. He turned back. Where the old alien had been sitting was just a pile of old pillows. The fire was still burning, but gradually getting lower. He stood and went to the steaming mug. For a moment he contemplated living without foresight. But what was this shroud? He poured the steaming liquid into the thermos and screwed it shut.

* * *

 

Armitage Hux had only one true luxury here, and that was that he did not share a bunk. In prior years the cadets had needed to share quarters, but in their current location there were enough small rooms for each cadet to have a private room. Never before had Hux been more thankful for that. He climbed into bed in his pajamas, opening the thermos. The smell that wafted out was not unpleasant. It was something like fresh melons with something spicy behind it. It reminded him vaguely of a tea from a long forgotten memory. A woman with red hair, drinking spicy tea. He shook the thought away and contemplated the drink once more.

“Well, bottoms up,” he said to himself, taking a mouthful of the liquid. For a moment he didn’t taste anything, but suddenly his mouth was tingling like he’d rolled in thorn bushes. He swallowed reflexively and breathed hard. His whole mouth was numb and he slowly felt the sensation creep down his throat. For a moment his mind wandered to the thought that the witch had poisoned him, but even as he grasped at the thought he found himself falling backwards into a great black chasm.

Instead of landing hard on the ground he found himself suddenly cradled by arms as if he were a bride. He looked up and found that looking at him was a black and silver mask, dented and worn, covered with soot. The air around them was filled with embers and the figure’s long flowing robes flew out behind them. The creature carrying him was breathing hard as if he was running.

“Hang on, General,” the figure whispered through the vocoder in the mask. Hux blinked and found himself in another vision.

He was on the deck of a great starship, the vastness of space visible before him through the transparisteel window. He glanced to his side and saw the same figure that had been running with him in his arms. He was staring out at the stars too, or so he could only assume with the mask. He felt the figure squeeze his hand and blinked. There he was in another vision.

A man was standing over him now. His face was bisected by a scar that was long healed, and he had a towel draped around his waist. His hair was wet as if he had just showered with real water, and his pale skin glistened in the early morning light.

“Armitage, it’s time to get ready. Your subjects are waiting,” the man said, a faint smile playing across his lips. Armitage blinked one last time. And he was in yet another vision.

He was sitting on a dais staring out at a sea of beings. Many species all crowded in a large town square. He glanced to one side, seeing the man with the bisected face sitting in a royal red robe with his face painted like ancient Nabooian royalty and a glance to the other allowed him to catch his reflection in the chrome armor of a storm trooper. He himself was also in a luxurious robe, this one as white as the mood, and with a simple circlet on his head. An emperor. He blinked and it was all gone.

The next he knew he bolted out of bed and threw up onto the floor. The visions continued to run through his mind as he dry heaved over the side of his cot. He breathed slowly, feeling the nausea pass. He grabbed a tissue from a box on his side table and dabbed at his mouth and nose. He cleaned  up his sick and lied back down to sleep. When he awoke in the morning he could still feel the man squeezing his hand.


End file.
